SiJ 2018 - Day Thirteen.

Very gloomy light today outside, so here’s one from indoors. There are a few of these on the beams, and I wonder what they mean. So much of the ancient carpentry is precise, but these seem crude and violent. Was there a political or religious symbol that had to be removed in a hurry? Whatever they are, they give a very human twist to the 500 years of history of the house.

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Very interesting. Are the marks somewhat symmetrical?

M.
 
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M.
 
Here's a bit of a mystery... This is one of 128 pennants, flags and standards painstakingly painted by hand onto a sheet of silk. It is over a metre square. There are some really odd flags on there, such as "Merchant of Persia", "Algerine Rover" and "Spanish Galleon". I'm trying to date it and would love to know it's history. A "grand luminary" stars and stripes standard like this is quite unusual - and count the stars...

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They are pretty much centrally located in each section of beam.
Martin: There may have been a time when they had to partition the room - either due to more people (or groups) living there or to some kind of more sinister occurence, like a bout of plague or other illnesses who necessitated at least some kind of shielding against (people didn't really know that this kind of "protection" wouldn't help at all until about 100 years ago - you can see this in the way they put people in huge wards in public hospitals - this still happened during the Spanish Flu pandemic in 1918!). It's something you find in some older building - different use of space, rather crudely executed, especially in case of sudden needs. Once more, very interesting, because things like that don't happen by accident. The colour suggests that the marks are pretty old, too - so if the house is 500 years old, they may well be very old, but it's difficult to tell without being there and having a look at the layering ...

M.
 
Martin: There may have been a time when they had to partition the room - either due to more people (or groups) living there or to some kind of more sinister occurence, like a bout of plague or other illnesses who necessitated at least some kind of shielding against (people didn't really know that this kind of "protection" wouldn't help at all until about 100 years ago - you can see this in the way they put people in huge wards in public hospitals - this still happened during the Spanish Flu pandemic in 1918!). It's something you find in some older building - different use of space, rather crudely executed, especially in case of sudden needs. Once more, very interesting, because things like that don't happen by accident. The colour suggests that the marks are pretty old, too - so if the house is 500 years old, they may well be very old, but it's difficult to tell without being there and having a look at the layering ...

M.
Matt, I think that may be a possibility, as we know the house was a "common lodging house" for some of its history, although the positioning would seem to leave some oddly sized roomlets. As approx 2/3rds of the original house has gone this may be a mystery we won't solve.
 
The first image is the official "Day Thirteen" entry. The second image was from a short outing yesterday. I wish it was shot today but hey. . . Both taken with my very compact Leica CL and Voigtlander M-mount Nokton 35mm f1.4 Classic SC lens.
. . . David
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The Voigtländer (I have the M.C. version) is a seriously underrated lens - as your images prove nicely. It's true that it's capricious wide open, but it's still worthwhile, and stopped down, it's a solid performer.

Thanks for reminding me - though honestly, the lens is now the permanent partner of my Leica M4-P, and for a reason ...

M.
 
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